Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/138

148 a life of sorrow, which ended in suicide. The view of Rome, its extensive Campagna and surrounding mountains, is, from this point, of the grandest and most beautiful description; the wind blows fresh and free over this height. One cannot wonder that the great men of Rome loved to dwell and to build here; one rather wonders, indeed, that they left during the last centuries, and that they still leave the gloriously-situated Monte Palatino to its ruins and cabbage gardens. The only part of the hill which is covered with houses and inhabited, is that which a wealthy Englishman converted into a beautiful garden, and which is called, after him, Villa Mills. It is now the residence of an order of nuns, who there enjoy the purest air and the most beautiful view; but they possess their paradise to themselves alone.

In the bath-room of Livia—to which you ascend by a flight of steps and an under-ground passage—there are still some well preserved portions of beautiful, painted pictures and arabesques, with the gilding still perfect, both on the walls and the roof. You see blue figures upon a golden ground, and golden figures